Is Facebook Marketing Dead – ‘No’, says James Scherer of Postplanner

Let’s admit it. We are all frustrated with the changes to EdgeRank, the Facebook algorithm. Reach can often fall below 2% and we are spending more time and it seems forced to spend more money to turn it around. So we love this post from Postplanner’s James Scherer who explains what we need to do.

Is Facebook Marketing Dead?

Facebook-rip? Here’s why Facebook is not dead.

1. Brand Awareness

But James, I thought you said Facebook’s organic reach is down & nobody’s seeing my posts?

That may be true, but the same thing goes for your competitors.

If you optimize your page with the latest Facebook best practices, you can still increase your brand awareness at a low, low price.

We’re talking about a platform that 75% of U.S. adults use every single day.

Just because it’s getting harder to reach them, doesn’t mean you should throw in the towel — just start throwing more punches.

With organic reach falling, here are some ways to make sure fans keep seeing your posts:

Quotes: especially inspiring & humorous quotes can encourage lots of sharesMilestones: posts that elicit a “congratulations” from your fans will show higher in the news feed than other content (due to that word triggering something in the Facebook algorithm)Memes: putting images & quotes together into memes works well for some business (though not all, so test this one)

2. Content Marketing

Is Facebook dead? Content creators are actually finding more success on Facebook than ever before.

That’s probably because their content is better suited for Facebook’s new algorithm.

I’m primarily talking about eye-catching list articles & infographics – 2 types of content that often get the most shares & engagement.

Try these content marketing best practices for your next few Facebook posts:

Use one blog title that’s optimized for SEO (long-tail format with a question & your keywords at the beginning) and another title (eye-catching & short) for social media:

Write long articles: posts with more than 2,000 words get shared more often than shorter ones

List articles: “why” articles & infographics are the most shared content on social media

Optimize the social share toolbar on your blog & make it easy to find — try limiting the social media choices to only Facebook, Twitter & Google+ (or the social platforms that work best for your business)

Create a banner header image for your blog or infographic & another (thumbnail) image for social — consider Facebook ad best practices when creating eye-catching images

If you’re a social media manager, work closely with your content team.

Ensure your articles are optimized for social in terms of length & have social-media-friendly header images.

Come up with 3 or 4 Facebook-friendly snippets from the article that can be used to intrigue users.

Create a valuable ebook related to your products (or use one you already have), email-gate it on your website

Create a Facebook ad expounding on the value of your email-gated ebook, complete with an eye-catching image
Target your Facebook ad at your new lookalike audience

Realistically, a lookalike audience of 10,000 will generate about 200 clicks with a 6-day, $500 budget.

If your web page converts that traffic at a rate of 35%, you’ll generate 70 leads for $500 — that’s about $7 per lead.

Do you know how much a lead is worth to your business? I’ll bet it’s more than $7.

Conclusion

Hopefully, I’ve given you some faith in the future of Facebook.

There are also a ton of tools that can give you a leg up on your competition — one is Post Planner’s very cool Viral Photos finder, which shows you the most viral images from any Facebook page.

Facebook evolves every day (I didn’t even get into the future of mobile advertising — something announced at F8 a few weeks ago & that will change the way we advertise on the platform), and that is in no way a bad thing for your business.

You simply have to think about it a different way.

The Facebook of 2012 doesn’t exist for businesses anymore!

As you & your business mature, Facebook matures with you (How I Met Your Mother reference anybody?).

Joanne is a digital marketing and social media consultant, trainer and international speaker. She is currently working on her second social media book and holds 11 professional and academic qualifications, including a Masters Degree in Journalism and a Masters Degree in Digital Marketing. Joanne loves to empower her clients with knowledge and skills to equip them in the digital age. Be sure to follow her tweets @tweetsbyJSB.